Elias Sarkis

Elias Sarkis (20 July 1924-27 July 1985) was President of Lebanon from 23 September 1976 to 22 September 1982, succeeding Suleiman Frangieh and preceding Bachir Gemayel.

Biography
Elias Sarkis was born on 20 July 1924 in Shbaniyeh, Lebanon to a family of Catholic Maronites. He became a lawyer in 1948 and became Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon in 1968; he was defeated by Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote (Kamal Jumblatt's) in the 1970 presidential elections. However, he won the 1976 elections, and his pro-Syria stance led to the Syrian Arab Army being able to occupy much of Lebanon during the raging Lebanese Civil War which had begun a year earlier. His rule saw Lebanon be divided, and he was unable to exercise any rule over a torn-apart country, and he made foreign policy mistakes by rejecting the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. He left office in 1982, and he died in Paris, France on 27 July 1985 of cancer at the age of 60.